Photo courtesy Paul Cross.
Paul Cross, of Paul’s Paintball Collection on facebook, recently discovered an amazing piece of UK paintball history, a complete Paintmatic’s Nemesis dating to about mid 1992.
Photo courtesy Paul Cross.
Paul is constantly finding neat artifacts of UK and European paintball history and discovering scans from UK based paintball magazines that are extremely relevant to the subjects I’m researching. This Nemesis find is amazing because it offers some insight into the standardized / finalized production model, the Nemesis’ existence at the NWC Shop and clue into the amount of Nemesis markers produced.
Photo courtesy Paul Cross.
The Paintmatic Nemesis History
The Paintmatic Nemesis uses a valve system that is essentially a Nelson valve, a reverse hammer, and a blow forward bolt. The design was originally know as the Legend and featured the same wood accents and body style but the external body and internal components differed. The Legend was one of the first semi automatics produced entirely in the UK, but production never got off the ground. The individuals involved were rumored to be splitting their time between questionable operations and paintball marker manufacturing.
The Legend model came with a three piece body when broken down to separate the breech, moving internal assembly (bolt and hammer) and valve body. The Nemesis breaks down slightly different, with the valve and bolt assembly much closer in resemblance to the quick stripping of an Automag valve, although operation is significantly different.
I’ve covered the Legends history in the following articles, The Legend by Paintmatic (part 1) and An update on the Nemesis and the Legend (part 2).
The Nemesis was featured in the November 1992 issue of Paintball Games International as shown above.
Several years back I found an incomplete Nemesis with the help of Mike “Cannon Fodder” Carter. My Nemesis is missing the sear, the barrel, the foregrip, and the regulator parts.
Robbo and the NWC Shop
Concerning his Nemesis, Paul writes, “[The original owner said] that he had seen one working when he worked at NWC’s shop, so taking a leap this could be the one behind Pete Robinson in [the November 1992] PGI article.”
Breaking down the Nemesis
Breaking down this Nemesis, Paul describes some of the issues he found:
“As you can probably see … the spacer that sits between the hammer and spring is broken…”
He continues, “[My Nemesis] arrived missing the front screw and I assume the stand off that the screw goes into. I managed to make one up and found a screw that fitted so I could tighten the front of the body down.”
Describing the exact broken piece, Paul writes, “The piece that is broken screws onto the hammer and then the spring goes between that and the body. You can see it in the second pic I sent, I’d say more of a guide than a retainer”
Paul didn’t disassemble his bolt entirely since the front bolt screw (which goes directly into the face of the bolt) seemed to lack a notch. On the Legend this screw used (I believe) a flat head that was print to stripping. Paul details this, “Looking at [the bolt face] was a little gutted I couldn’t get the bolt stripped further but without a slot in the screw I didn’t want to mar up the inside faces.”
Testing his Nemesis, Paul writes:
“Using a standard output HPA tank [the Nemesis] cycles but wont stay cocked and then goes full auto so I’m guessing the pressure is too low. But it’s cool to have and I’ll see if I can get hold of some co2 or a higher pressure tank and try it again.”
Paul sent several details of the powertube and cup seal used in the valve assembly of his Nemesis.
The Nemesis’ powertube features a very thin base, which I would imagine, under regular use would lead to problems cracking and sheering off. Paul’s issue of his marker not recocking the complicated hammer assembly could possibly be resolved with a larger inner diameter powertube having more volume to blow the bolt forward, which, at the same time pushes the hammer back to recock the valve assembly (I believe that’s how the recocking on this marker works).
Photo courtesy Paul Cross.
Production Numbers
This Nemesis also features a serial number of 0017, which not only indicates it could be a production model, but offers insight into the actual numbers produced.
Paul writes that this marker “…Has a stamped number (0017) on the reg mount. I guess that could mean mine could be a production model.”
17 would be a much higher number than I would have guessed Paintmatic produced for the Nemesis model.
As of writing this article and seeing Paul’s Nemesis I have seen 4 Legends in existance today and 2.5 Nemesis model (mine, which is incomplete being the .5) that I can track down.
Sometime in the next few weeks I will disassembly my Nemesis to check for similarities and differences. My Nemesis lacks a number on the reg so it could either be unfinished or a pre production model.
Giant thanks to Paul Cross for his photos, details and permission reposting! See more of Paul’s collection here.
